@mom23travelers - there’s certainly something when you work for the federal government - something more than in my industry, which consists of social security and whatever I can spare toward a 401(k) (which is currently not amassing anything because of loans I’m paying back to myself). That’s all I was talking about. Governments - local, state, federal - have pension plans, at least I’ve always believed that to be the case. Pension plans are hard to come by outside of civil service/military/union jobs.
@chippedtoof - thank you for the compliment – I know I seem cynical and amazingly negative, but I just remember back when I graduated with my degree, with honors, and spent the summer working the Monkey Ward stockroom because it was the only job I could get. I was back in grad school by fall.
And those were the boom years!!!
Meanwhile, D is still flailing about a career path. She mentioned something today that made my heart twinge:
She said, "When I tell people that I’m thinking about working for the National Park Service, there’s always a pause, and then a …‘greaaat.’ " Meaning her friends think she’s essentially going downmarket. These are the rich ones, the ones headed to Ivies or expensive LACs, considering careers of doctor/lawyer/engineer etc.
Sigh.
I ranted about being happy, and money not being the foundation for that – but she also knows how financially precarious our situation is, and she sees that a lack of money can make things pretty damn miserable.
So she second-guesses herself even without going down the English career path.
ACT splits are funny, DD2018 had a 27 composite with 32 Reading, 28 Science, 25 english and 24 Math, clearly she has some great reading comprehension skills and needs to pay attention to the mechanics/details. Her math score was low due to time issues and rushing I think although it probably would not have gotten over 26 on a great day. Her essay score was 9 (which I think is like the 90th percentile), so her writing skill is not the issue, her ability to edit is the issue. Not that is matters, they are concentrating on the math and english subscore, not the science and reading and essay. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out from the schools who do a more holisitc review.
Frankly on the collegiate level I think the ability to comprehend and extrapolate information is extremely important,maybe even more than the match and english mechanical skills for someone interested in humanities.
@STF4717 , congratulations on Ohio U. My son is also applying there. Can you tell me how long it took for them to make a decision? Son visited last week for Scholars Days and really liked it.
@Gatormama - I think the National Park Service is an outstanding career option. We weirdly have 4 family friends who went that route and love, love, love their jobs. Hocking Technical College is southern Ohio is well known for that type of degree and have an excellent career placement record.
1 guy works for MIchigan Parks and Wildlife
1 guy is with the National Park Service in Northern Ohio
1 gal is in the National Park Service in Southern VA (history major)
1 guy used to work for the park service and now counts fish for the State of Michigan.
@Gatormama Definitely, we can’t see the future, and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that whichever tools our DC have earned over the years are good enough to carry them through. Even law or medical degrees don’t guarantee a job (or happiness) 10 years after graduation. An english degree doesn’t necessarily make things obvious and easy, but I’m hopeful it’ll be an asset and one of many educational/developmental steps in their lives.
“…and she sees that a lack of money can make things pretty damn miserable.”
If I may say so, I’d chalk this up as an advantage. I’ve seen too many young adults (and some older) who don’t have enough perspective to make sound financial and business decisions; like anything, experience and exposure helps.
The update on apps for us: 8 submitted, 4 ready to go, and three “in review” (I thought they were done, but he wants to review them again). I told S18 that it was great and we should submit the 4 that are ready and he replies “no, I just want to trickle them in” ??? What the… 8-| … his parents must not have raised him properly :))
To deal with the waiting, I’ve been resorting to lurking through the various CC subforums for his schools to see how the schools are doing in terms of acceptances. It looks like some are coming in for Wooster and Clark (EDs and some EAs it looks like).
Classes seem to be going ok, although we’re in that familiar nether-region between an A- and a B+ for too many for my comfort. He is improving on his attention to detail so that’s been encouraging.
They’re reading “Frankenstein” and my son chastised me for showing him “Young Frankenstein” a few months back. “There’s no Igor in the novel!” he complained. Yes, yes, and there’s no Frau Blucher either… it’s a shame really.
LOL @chippedtoof my D did the “trickle them in” thing too! It was so weird, but I figured as long as they were done and she got them in by the deadline…
I think I’d find the “trickle in” approach a little less stressful than the “submit with 10 minutes to spare before the EA deadline expires” approach, which is what DD appears to be doing. I’d like to “LOL” but I don’t know…
@1822mom I am unusually happy to hear that someone else is using that method to turn in their apps I thought he was just trying to flaunt his uniqueness… or he was enjoying watching my facial tics as he tells me they aren’t turned in yet.
@xyxyxx yes, you have a point! Just had to do a “first-come, first-served sign-up for limited spots on the school play opens up online at 7pm” mad-dash last week for my D25, which must feel similar… unfortunately, our home internet connection has been flaky for the past couple of weeks, so last-minutes and mad-dashes are highly discouraged presently at our home! (we had to log in from work to get a reliable connection)
I have tried to point out the ever present possibility that anything can go wrong at the last minute, like illness, a poor internet connection, etc. But alas, these 17 year olds know those things “aren’t going to happen.” Sigh.
Ack, it’s always the same. As soon as I get some hope, the sloppiness returns: C- on a test because he didn’t study for it at all. Didn’t restudy material even though we’re 3 weeks from finals… I guess I’ve been lucky in the past, but I haven’t encountered someone so willing to self-sabotage within my inner circle. I just don’t get the mentality… not one bit…
Well, now the story is that he did study for it, but not thoroughly… which is not great but much better than not studying at all. (My biggest worry is the behavior more than the grade, although the grade hurts) He did go ahead and talk to the teacher about it and is signed up for maxing out his preparation for the finals, so that’s good. The disappointment is that it was for his math class which, unlike other years, he was doing pretty well in until this incident. I guess we’ll have to see if his upward trajectory in grades is supported by his latest semester or not. He did get a good grade in his latest english paper… he seems to have picked the right major at least. Apologies for the “serenity now” moment yesterday!
DD’18 finally submitted her UC app tonight, but since her GPA is not strong, we don’t have any clue of what chance she will have to be admitted by UCs. Her SAT score is 1450, with pretty strong EC. Now we just need to pay and patiently wait. I will pray for her as she really satori attend an UC!
I just wish we would hear a positive response from any of the SUNY schools to which she replied. She had all her apps in by mid October, but stuff at school meant that her packet didn’t go out for almost a month. Still in plenty of time for her one EA school, and for all the others, but I would LOVE for her to have the concrete knowledge that she IS going to college next year.
@jjkmom it is difficult to calculate chances with the UCs and “good but not uber” gpas isn’t it? There is a chart around CC that shows admit rates at different campuses for different gpas… but they don’t reference SAT scores that are not “aligned” with gpa. Results on CC from last year seem to indicate it is possible to get in with lower than average gpa (for a campus) and high SATs but being anecdotal it’s hard to get a sense of what the real odds are vs that chart.
@bjkmom another thread had a post about keeping busy and distracted… but boy it’s hard not to fixate on this stuff. Hang in there!
@chippedtoof totally agree about the UCs being unpredictable. My daughter has a decent, but not outstanding GPA - same with her SATs. She’s applied to 3 UCs and 3 CSUs and we’re just hoping she get’s into at least one. She wants to stay in CA for college - even though her stepfather and I plan to move back to the east coast once she’s settled in school. I made her apply to some out of state schools too just so that she has options. You never know what will happen with the CA schools.
So much depends on your choice of major for UCs as well. Some schools like engineering are extremely difficult to get into, and, at many campuses, your choice of major doesn’t matter if you’re applying for Letters and Science. It’s very difficult to gauge.
@bacmom Is your D looking at SDSU and Cal Poly SLO? I heard their methods are a bit different than the rest of the CSUs. I ran some numbers for a friend for SJSU… As @stardustmom points out, it gets pretty difficult if you don’t have a high gpa for some competitive majors (For SJSU CS, if one has a 3.65 gpa, one would need a 1600 on the SAT to meet the eligibility index of 4500…! and I believe the index can change each year so it could get harder for this year). I can’t imagine what SLO is requiring for their CS majors.
Good luck, I’m sure your D’s schools will be worth giving her best shot.
– I know I seem cynical and amazingly negative, but I just remember back when I graduated with my degree, with honors, and spent the summer working the Monkey Ward stockroom because it was the only job I could get. I was back in grad school by fall.
I thought he was just trying to flaunt his uniqueness… or he was enjoying watching my facial tics as he tells me they aren’t turned in yet.